DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — Six former student-athletes, including a mother-daughter duo, recently were inducted into the Foxcroft Academy Athletic Hall of Fame.
Virginia Appleby Robinson (1956) played basketball and softball, and she and her peers were trendsetters in putting Foxcroft women’s athletics on the map. In basketball, she was the leading scorer on county championship teams in 1955 and 1956.
In softball, Robinson played shortstop and batted cleanup, leading Foxcroft Academy to its first county championship and starting a stretch of 12 titles in 15 years.
Lisa Robinson Richardson (1985), the daughter of Appleby Robinson, was a four-year starter in field hockey who garnered team MVP and all-state honors as both a junior and senior. She was also a four-year starter in basketball, leading the Ponies in assists and points her last three seasons.
In softball, she played shortstop and was team MVP her final three seasons. Richardson went on to star for the University of Maine- Farmington field hockey team and was inducted to the UMF Hall of Fame in 2004.
Lou Stevens (1949) served as team manager for the football, basketball and baseball teams while a student at Foxcroft. He went on to cover local sports as a reporter for the Piscataquis Observer and Eastern Gazette for many years. He also authored two books on the history of Foxcroft Academy football.
Stevens’ name has become synonymous with high school sports in Piscataquis County, and in 1994, he received the media award from the Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
Bob Thomas (1964) scored a team-leading eight touchdowns in 1963 while leading the Ponies to a football state championship. He was a two-year captain in that sport as well as basketball, where he was named to the Bangor Daily News All-Maine team as a senior.
Since leaving Foxcroft, he has completed 29 triathlons and 27 marathons, finishing first among Maine competitors in the 1977 Boston Marathon.
Jenny Joyce Stuckey (1979) was a standout athlete in field hockey and track and a pioneer in cheerleading. As captain of the field hockey squad, she helped her team to the Eastern Maine finals and was voted team MVP. Stuckey led the Foxcroft cheering squad to its first state championship and was later invited to become a professional cheerleading instructor for the National Cheerleaders Association.
She went on to become a member of the dance company and cheerleading team at the University of Maine. She later moved to New York City to become an actor, model and spokesperson.
Jerod Rideout (2008) was a four-time individual state champion in wrestling for the Ponies, finishing with a career record of 158-12. He won four Eastern Maine and Penobscot Valley Conference titles.
Rideout was a two-time All-Maine honoree in the sport, and graduated as Foxcroft’s career record holder in wins, pins, takedowns and technical falls.
